Safaricom opens a ‘Platinum’ Store at the Sarit Centre

I happened to see the post [below] on the Official Safaricom Facebook Page about two days ago.

It didn’t interest me much about what a Platinum store really is until I read a ‘revelation’ on one of my favorite tech blogs in Kenya.

Well, here is how it goes. Safaricom has opened a Platinum shop at the Sarit center.

This is not just like any other Safaricom store where you can pop in and look at all those Smartphones you cannot afford to buy (I used to do that a lot when I was a Teenager)

The Safaricom Platinum Store is an exclusive of a certain cadre of Safaricom subscribers. Which cadre might you ask?

The Safaricom Platinum Store is only for folks who spend at least Ksh 15,000 per month on their Safaricom lines. That is an average of about Ksh 500 a day.

See that dude on the image above, looks a lot to me like a bouncer.

Why would Safaricom place a bouncer at their entrance you may ask?

To enter the store you have to present the ‘Platinum’ card. The membership card is a buy invitation only card given to the top spenders on the Safaricom network.

So if you theoretically have this card, what are the benefits of accessing the Safaricom Platinum Store?

The Platinum Safaricom Shop offers among other things an Apple Store Grade Design (Never been to an Apple store, but I have seen the pictures though) to shoppers with plenty of Dinero, you also get a chance to preview upcoming gadgets that are still on pre-order, a dedicated relationship manager and lastly, an access to the exclusive 242 Safaricom customer support line.

As much as this seems unfair to the many of us whose monthly airtime expenditure is way below the Ksh 15,000 mark, I still think Safaricom in on the right with this concept.

Most of the 18 Million subscribers on the Safaricom network are the ‘Bamba’ 10, 20 & 50 users and the Platinum store concept can leave the a bitter taste in their mouths.